Kočani ‘Pulse’ fire trial resumes with cross‑examination of construction experts
Court in Idrizovo continues evidence phase with defence cross‑examining the construction experts who prepared the prosecution’s report.
The trial over the March 16, 2025 fire at the Pulse nightclub in Kočani — which left 63 people dead and more than 200 injured — continues today in the Idrizovo courtroom of the Basic Criminal Court Skopje.
The proceedings remain in the evidence phase and today will focus on the cross-examination by the defence of the team of construction experts who prepared the prosecution's technical report.
At the previous hearing the expert team from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (UKIM), led by court expert and professor Goran Markovski — who was dean of the Faculty at the time the report was produced — spent more than four hours answering defence questions posed on behalf of the accused: owner Grozdan Milkovski and municipal construction inspectors Ognjen Georgiev and Nikolcho Kocev.
Questions covered planning, conversions and supervision
The experts who contributed to the prosecution's construction assessment were questioned about the building's change of use under the Detailed Urban Plan and relevant regulations, the construction works and conversions carried out on the object, licensing and operating requirements, the bodies responsible for technical oversight, and the official duties of construction inspectors.
The case is presided over by Judge Dijana Gruevska-Ilievska and the indictment is presented by a team of 15 public prosecutors. With the presentation of the construction expertise and the testimony of the experts who prepared it, prosecutors expect to complete their evidence phase, after which the defence will begin to present its evidence.
The March 16, 2025 blaze — during a performance by the band DNK — remains one of the deadliest peacetime tragedies in the country’s recent history.
Photo: press material from the event
